Nisar keeps media guessing

Interior minister postpones eagerly-awaited news conference for today

ISLAMABAD: Chaudhry Nisar Ali has kept the media guessing over his stance regarding government’s handling of the post-JIT report situation after he rescheduled the eagerly-awaited news conference for Monday (today).

“The interior minister will not be able to hold his press conference today due to an extreme backache,” his spokesperson said on Sunday.

According to the spokesman, the interior minister would hold the presser on Monday at 5pm.

Against the backdrop of reported misgivings between the minister and the government about the way the campaign was run against the JIT, Nisar’s news conference has attained great significance.

However, the spokesman advised the media to avoid doing guesswork in this connection and postponement of the news conference “should not be given other meanings”.



He was at pains to explain that the event had been postponed only due to the bad health of the interior minister.

“Due to severe backache, he (Chaudhry Nisar) has been advised complete rest,” the spokesman added.

There are reports that senior PML-N leaders are attempting to bridge the gulf between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar.

Reportedly Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif and PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq are trying to resolve differences between the premier and the powerful cabinet minister.

It is learnt that efforts are being made to persuade Nisar not to go hard against the party’s policies and its leadership over the Panamagate case in his press talk.

However, the interior ministry has been advising the media to avoid any guesswork or, in Nisar’s own expression, ‘avoid kite flying’ – diction he generally uses for such circumstances.

“What Chaudhry Nisar would tell in his news conference will get clear when he holds it,” the spokesman had stated a few days ago in response to reports that were being aired on the mainstream media about him. The reports were about emerging differences between him and his party leadership.

Although the stance of Chaudhry Nisar in the post-JIT’s report scenario may be a mystery, his differences with at least one other fellow minister are an open secret.



Federal Minister of Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal, while mentioning about the speech of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar in the last cabinet meeting, had said that everyone in the party had their own views but “no one is breaking from the party line or the prime minister”.

He had also talked about the solidarity which was expressed with the prime minister by all the participants.

However, shortly after the airing of those views on a private TV channel, the interior ministry’s spokesman had issued a strong rebuttal and advised ministers “to avoid attributing false and incorrect statements about the speech which Chaudhry Nisar had made in the cabinet meeting”.

Moreover, he stated that it was unfortunate that those statements were being issued from such ministers who actually pushed the government to the present critical situation.

Those and all other mysteries would only be resolved when Chaudhry Nisar would hold the news conference and tell his side of the story publicly.